Our Recent Clown Trip to Ecuador

Did you see who was recently running around in my underwear? The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa!

I’ve just returned from Ecuador, where 20 clowns from 7 countries have now made six annual visits. The trip was, almost needless to say, filled with glorious clown magic!

First up was a conference the government convened to address the health of the nation’s 0-5-year-old children. At this conference, my friend Minister for Public Health Carina Vance asked me to return to Ecuador in March to help her Confront Chevron and its abuses in the Amazon. There are few things I love more than pristine nature and few things I love less than oil corporations, and I made it known that I’m happy to be used in any way to help out.

Carina also took me to Cotopaxi to take part in the grand opening of a terrific clinic the government is opening as part of a plan to provide health care to all the people. It would be difficult for people in the United States, where health care provision is governed by capitalist market forces, to imagine the government opening such a huge facility. There, I met with doctors and medical students who expressed the same wish I have heard in 120 countries: to grant love for the ailing an important presence in medical education. I have some hope that Ecuador’s 21 medical schools can make it the first country to teach compassion to its aspiring doctors!

And, of course, there was the lunch I shared with President Correa, who has courageously stood up to Wall Street and the international financial system in an attempt to serve the poor and indigenous populations of Ecuador. I had previously met with his Vice President, Lenin Moreno, and had gotten him to try on the World’s Largest Underpants (size 100!), so I asked Correa to become the second President to try them on.

If you want to keep in touch about the movements to save nature, provide health care to all, give compassion a place in education, and spread fun and joy to all the world’s people, Like my page on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

Onward until the whole world’s butts come together in the same undies,

Travel

Gesundheit hosts events focused on education—at the site of the future hospital and elsewhere.